What/where are the old episodes of "Doctors' Diaries"?

April 5, 2009 8:00 AM

So in the next two weeks Nova, a science program on PBS, is airing the conclusion of a series that followed doctors from when they were medical students (1988) to today. I know that there was 2 previous episodes (1988 & 1998). Being a stressed out med student in the middle of midterms, it would be awesome if a bunch of classmates and I were to be able to watch all of the episodes (from 1988 to present) in a Nova marathon after exams. So... Does anyone in the hive mind know how I can get my hands on the first two parts of the series, or at least the titles of the old episodes?
posted by jytsai to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

I'd be surprised if Nova doesn't re-screen the first two parts, personally; have you seen whether this may be so? if so, even if it's a few days beforehand, you could tape them and there you are.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 AM on April 5, 2009

My dates were off, I don't need titles anymore. Feeding back the participant doctors' names in Google popped out:

1991
So You Want to be a Doctor

1995
M.D.: The Making of a Doctor

2001
Survivor, M.D.

But everything is in VHS! [Bangs head on table]

EmpressCallipygos: The Chicago PBS station isn't playing the previous episodes. =( I guess it looks bad on their shiny, shiny HD signal or something.
posted by jytsai at 8:22 AM on April 5, 2009

You're in Chicago? It looks like the Chicago Public Library has the VHS tapes. You can look up libraries that have them in WorldCat, or try requesting them through interlibrary loan from your university library. WGBH is still selling the last two titles, too.
posted by steef at 8:38 AM on April 5, 2009

Survivor, M.D. transcript

Doesn't look like Nova has those episodes online.
posted by Zed at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2009

it would be awesome if a bunch of classmates and I were to be able to watch all of the episodes [...] But everything is in VHS!

VHS shouldn't be a problem if you're going to book a university lecture theatre for the showing; just ask in advance for a room with a VHS player.
posted by Mike1024 at 12:49 PM on April 5, 2009

Confirmed that VHS won't be a problem, you can also find if your campus library has a media transcoding service; at TAMU we have Internet Media Services which will transcode just about anything into internet streaming media formats at high resolution and then place it where anyone with access to the university library can log in and watch it from home.
posted by SpecialK at 6:08 PM on April 5, 2009